How do I keep one brand voice across Arabic and English?
Define the personality through behaviours: how directly you explain, how confidently you make claims, how you use humour and how you guide the next step. Add examples of what fits and what does not in both languages. A glossary helps with recurring terms, but a word list cannot replace shared editorial judgement.
Review each version independently for clarity, then compare the offer, proof and commitments. The goal is for both readers to recognise the same business, even when the wording and sentence length differ.
A practical example
Suppose a fictional brand wants to sound direct and reassuring. In English it might say “We’ll explain the options before you choose.” A natural Arabic line could be “نوضّح لك الخيارات قبل أن تقرّر”. The sentence shape changes, while the commitment stays the same. A dramatic Arabic promise of the “perfect solution” would create a different personality and a stronger claim than the original.
How to apply this
- Define personality as writing behaviours in both languages.
- Develop native examples for the same real situations.
- Compare commitments and evidence, not sentence length.
- Review Arabic independently before comparing the versions.
What to watch for
A glossary can stabilise product names and recurring terms, but it cannot decide the tone of a complaint response or the strength of a promise. Give the Arabic writer access to the brief and the reasoning, not only an English file to translate.
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